Every third Thursday of November, the Beaujolais Nouveau is celebrated.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a young wine called “primeur”, it comes from grapes harvested during the year. With a beautiful red colour, quite clear, the primeur is distinguished by aromas known as “amylic”. In France, on the occasion of Beaujolais Nouveau, people get together to taste the wine and to spend time together.

Mainly, Beaujolais is produced in the Beaujolais vineyards, north of Lyon and south of Macon, and must be made from the Gamay Noir grape. Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau cover nearly 8,000 hectares of vines. The Beaujolais appellation includes 96 communes in the southern and eastern part of the vineyard. Established on clay-limestone and granite soils, more than 50% of the Beaujolais Nouveau red and rosé wines are marketed. The Beaujolais-Villages are located in 38 communes, with granite soils and steep hillsides. They represent 40% of the wines sold as “Nouveau”, red and rosé. The volumes put on the market amount to more than 160,000 hectolitres, i.e. more than 20 million bottles each year.

Beaujolais Nouveau in figures

• Nearly 87,000 hectolitres (hl) of Beaujolais Nouveau were sold in France in 2019, or 11.6 million bottles. In total, 50,000 hl were sold in supermarkets, i.e. nearly 7 million bottles. Nearly 37,000 hl were sold in traditional channels, restaurants and wine shops.
• 700 winegrowers
• 20 million bottles produced
• 170,000 hectolitres consumed worldwide. Japan alone consumes 37,000 hl
• 40% of the production is sold internationally.